


Brother's Keeper

by hermitized



Category: Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Heart Attacks, Hospital Setting, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hermitized/pseuds/hermitized
Summary: In the aftermath of a devastating event, Connor doesn't think he deserves any thanks. Jay sees it differently.





	

Connor approached the doorway at a wide-angle, jacket tugged up around his neck. Normally, he could barely even hear the beating of the monitors on the cardiac monitoring floor unless something was really off, but today every beat seemed to grind against his already raw nerves.

Jay Halstead was leaning forward on his brother’s bed, head resting on folded arms. Not wanting to disturb him, Connor started to turn away, but Jay must have heard his footsteps, because he quickly sat up. _Cop’s reflexes._ “Can I help you?”

“Mr. Halstead. Or, it’s detective, isn’t it?” Connor stepped into the doorway. “I’m Dr. Rhodes. We met earlier today, I think, but I’m not sure you got my name.” Everything had been a blur, for a while there.

“Rhodes.” Jay leaned back, clearly trying to drag the pieces of his scattered memory together. “You’re the heart surgeon?”

“That’s right.” He slid his hand into his pockets, tried not to shift on his feet. “I wanted to see how Will was doing, before I left for the day.”

Jay nodded, and made a motion for him to come in. He walked in, stood at the foot of the bed, looked down at Will’s sleeping (or was it more accurate to say unconscious?) body. He listened, for a moment, to his breathing through the mask, to the rhythm of the monitor. “Are you alone here?”

“My partners will be here soon.” Jay studied him for another moment, then nodded slowly. “I do remember you. Connor, right?”

“Right again.”

The detective looked down at his hands. “They say you saved my brother’s life.”

Now, that wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. “Really. Who’s ‘they’?”

“Maggie. Doctor Manning. Doctor...what was his name...Latham?”

“Latham said that?” Taking a deep breath, Connor walked further into the room, and sat down in a chair next to Jay. “Being in a hospital saved his life. The ER staff saved his life.”

“Sure.” Jay folded his hands, looked up at the monitor. “Only, he was surrounded by doctors, and nurses all day, and they didn’t see anything, did they? You did.”

“All I did was get him into a bed.”

“Listen, doc. I don’t know thing one about medicine, but here’s what Doctor Manning told me.” He lifted his head, squared his shoulders. “You were both leaving for the day. Early shifts. You saw him in the doctor’s lounge, and told Maggie you thought he needed to be checked out. Have I gotten anything wrong so far?”

He hadn’t. When he’d seen Will in the morning, he’d said he felt sick, but he thought he was just hungover. Connor had accepted that explanation but, when he saw him that afternoon, he knew in his gut that something was really wrong. Will had been pale, sweaty, his hand shaking as he’d tried to button up his jacket to go outside..

“Maggie believed you. I assume Will didn’t, but I doubt you gave him much choice. Natalie put him on an EKG, and ordered some blood tests. He called me, then, but he said it was probably nothing, and I was getting OT, so I told him I’d come get him in a couple of hours. Forty-five minutes, an hour later, he crashed.” Jay bit his lip. “Natalie said, when she and Choi ran in, you were doing compressions.”

Hearing it all laid out like that was surreal. He’d broken Will’s ribs. That was the only thing he could remember. “I was in the right place, at the right time. Everything in the hospital is a team effort.”

“I’m not disputing that. Here’s what I’m trying to say, doc.” Jay looked up at him again, and even though his eyes were blue to Will’s brown, there was the same brightness, the same fervent belief. “An hour after you put him in the hands of ER staff, he crashes. Where would he been, an hour later, if you’d just let him leave? Hell, he wouldn’t have been resting, so let’s call it thirty minutes. Where would he have been? On the bus? Outside his apartment? His girlfriend wasn’t off shift yet. The next best place he could have been was Molly’s, but he wouldn’t have gone there in the middle of the day. So, what I’m saying is, you saved my brother’s life.”

Connor hadn’t even thought of that, not since when this had all just started. Maybe he hadn’t let himself think about it. He honestly felt a little dizzy.

Jay slumped down in his chair, arms crossed against his chest. “He’s just about the only blood family I got left. There’s nothing I could possibly…"

“You don’t need to say anything.”

"I do, though. I really do."

They both turned, again, to the form of Will on the bed. Connor closed his eyes. “I’m not doing this surgery, but he couldn’t be in better hands than Doctor Latham.”

“That’s what everyone tells me.”

They were silent for a moment. Then, Jay said, “How did this happen? He’s barely thirty-one.”

“I wish I knew.”

There was a light knock on the door. Turning he saw two people in plainclothes. His brain supplied their names _(Dawson and Lindsay)_ the way it supplied names of major arteries.

He didn’t want to leave, not really, but it wasn’t his turn. This wasn’t where he needed to be right now.

Jay motioned them in. Connor stood up. “I’ll check in again tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you,” Jay said. His voice was rough. Dawson walked in, and put a hand on his shoulder. Lindsay sat down on his other side, squeezing his wrist. Connor tucked his hand into his pockets, nodded to them, and walked out.

Ethan, Natalie, and Jeff were all waiting in the courtyard for him. Letting out a breath, he said, “Critical, but stable.”

The three of them shared a look. Natalie looked really rattled, and Jeff had a hand resting on her shoulder blade. Ethan asked, “How are you, Connor?”

“I’m fine.” It wasn’t true, but he was pretty sure he could fake it for a little while longer.

For a moment, they listen to traffic pass by. Jeff said, “Come on, I’ll drive you guys to Molly’s.”

“I’ll meet you there,” Connor said. “I haven’t been home in sixteen hours, I need to take a shower.”

Natalie pulled away from Jeff, walked over, and gave Connor a hug. “Thank you.”

Again, he had no idea what to say. Gently, he squeezed her around the shoulders. “I’ll be there soon.”

She drew back, wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Jeff nodded to him. Ethan squeezed his shoulder. They walked off in one direction, he turned and went the other.

He had to sit in his car for a long time before he felt safe enough to drive.


End file.
